Personal Time Off (Canadian employees)
Time off under this policy is not being provided in addition to any pre-existing vacation, personal time, or sick leave policy, which are now superseded by this policy.
Holidays
For employees in Ontario, CivicActions Canada is considered closed on the following holidays:
| Holiday | Dates |
|---|---|
| New Year's Day | January 1st |
| Family Day | Third Monday in February |
| Good Friday | Friday before Easter |
| Victoria Day | Monday before May 25th |
| Canada Day | July 1st |
| Civic Holiday | 1st Monday in August |
| Labour Day | 1st Monday in September |
| Thanksgiving | 2nd Monday of October |
| Christmas Day | December 25th |
| Boxing Day | December 26th |
If a holiday falls on a the weekend, the Ontario office observes the holiday on the following Monday.
Employees are not encouraged to work on these holidays. If you feel it's necessary to work on a holiday, hourly, non-exempt employees will be compensated at their normal hourly rate, and will receive overtime where appropriate.
Exempt employees who voluntarily work on holidays will not receive additional compensation. Absent unique circumstances related to the needs of the business, you do NOT need to log entries when the office is closed for a holiday. All non-exempt employees must obtain approval from their manager prior to performing work on a holiday, and must record all hours worked, regardless of whether such prior approval was obtained.
Notice, scheduling, and approval of time off
You do not need to justify time off for traditional vacation or personal time, but it does need to be arranged in advance so the work will be covered. An exception to this rule is for unforeseeable events or emergencies.
For time off related to any sick leave that is foreseeable, employees should provide advance notice as soon as possible, preferably at least seven days in advance. If the need for sick leave is unforeseeable, employees shall provide notice as soon as practicable.
Employees should follow the following procedure for providing notice of, scheduling, and obtaining approval of paid time off:
- If you are working on an active project (internal or external), discuss the impact of your absence with your project manager & team to get coverage and clarify project impact. This is especially important if there is flexibility in your dates. This is not necessary if the need is related to sick time that is unforeseeable.
- For planned time off, put the request into Unanet (Time>Dashboard). Click Leave Request, enter your date range, and enter a comment to explain your plan for coverage as discussed with your PM & team. You can use the "Additional Email Notifications" field during submission to notify your project lead or others. If you are providing notice where the need is related to sick time and is unforeseeable, there's no need to explain further.
- You will receive communication through Unanet when your request is approved.
- Go to your google calendar and create an "out of office" event for the days you have off. This will auto decline any meetings on those days with a note that you are out of office
- Ensure that your team is reminded before your planned time off. This can happen in an email; slack message or during scrum. We want to avoid any surprises to the team even though you've planned the time off.
- For the dates of your time-off, please update your slack status to indicate you are out of office. You can update your slack status by clicking your icon in the top right corner of the slack window, and typing in a new status in the "update your status" box.
- If your time off is immediate, unplanned, and unforeseeable, the most important thing is that your team knows you are out. If you are able, please send a slack to notify the team and put the leave request in Unanet.You can use the "Additional Email Notifications" field during submission to notify your project lead or others. If Unanet is not accessible for you, please send an email to peopleops@civicactions.com and cc anyone else who needs to know. You don't need to give specific information around why you are out, just indicate that you will be out today and when we can expect you back. If you anticipate being out more than a day or two, please let us know in your email, and we will let you know if we need you to submit a request in Unanet.
- Log your time in Unanet under the category of TIMEOFF, using sick, vacation, or technical issues. Remember that doctor's appointments for you and other family members are also billed as sick time.
- The USER REPORTS on the Reports Dashboard shows you reports about YOURSELF and you can look at your timeoff there.
- Screenshots and further help documentation can be seen on Unanet here - https://help.unanet.com/current/unanet_menu/time/leave_requests.htm
Sample messages to demonstrate how to request timeoff in Unanet:
- Hello, I am out sick today. I've let my team know via slack not to expect me today.
- Hello, I want to take Aug 1-7 off. I have coordinated coverage with my team and remind them again prior to my time off.
- Hello, I am doing a prodev workshop on Feb 1. I have notified my team that I will be out that day.
- Hello, I need tomorrow off for a last minute doctor appointment. I have notified those who need to know not to expect me tomorrow.
Scheduling shifts
If you find yourself needing to adjust your schedule a certain day or week, it is best practice to follow a similar process as requesting time off. A schedule shift does not mean you are taking time off, but rather you have an interrupted or different schedule from your normal work week. An example could be your team is traveling for a project/sales meeting, you are attending a conference, or you need a Tuesday off but plan to make up the hours over the weekend.
- You should first make sure you understand the impact of your schedule shift to your (project) team and get coverage or move meetings as appropriate.
- Email the ca-schedule@civicactions.net list describing your schedule change and note that you've already worked out plans with your team for coverage, etc.
- The schedule change will be acknowledged in an email reply.
- The admin will add this schedule change to the OOO calendar so that it appears in Slack with other requests like time off.
Personal tech issues
At CivicActions, we understand that having occasional issues with your home network, power and personal equipment are a normal part of working from home.
Communication
When you have a technical issue with your home network, power and personal equipment that stops you from being able to work at all, communicate early and often:
- Ping your team in Slack to let them know you aren't available.
- Set a Slack status (if you can,) so people know you aren't available.
- If you aren't able to access Slack, deputize your work contact to let your PM(s) and team know.
- If the problem lasts longer than 2 hours, email ca-schedule@civicactions.net and log it in Unanet, using the task "Technical Issues".
- If it's persistent, set an out of office message.
Slack channels
- You can go to the following Slack channels for support: #windows #osx #gnu-linux
Personal Leave of Absence
Employees of CivicActions, including part-time employees, who have worked for at least one year may request a personal leave of absence. A leave of absence is for extended periods, typically four weeks or more, where an employee is fully or part-time away from work, for example taking courses/training, handling extended personal matters, completing a personal project, or world travel. Leaves will be discussed on a case by case basis and may be paid, partially paid or unpaid.
Bereavement Leave
CivicActions is committed to supporting team members during difficult times of personal loss. Eligible team members are entitled to up to 14 days of paid bereavement leave per occurrence. Bereavement leave can be used for the death of an immediate family member, defined as a spouse or domestic partner, child, stepchild, parent, stepparent, sibling, grandparent, or grandchild. Additionally, team members may use up to 7 days of paid bereavement leave for the death of a close friend or significant other as determined by the PeopleOps department. For more details, view our Bereavement Policy.
Medical insurance
To be updated with information from PEO Canada
Professional development stipend
Employees are encouraged to take education and training courses related to their profession. When appropriate, and with prior approval, CivicActions will pay for all or a portion of such courses.